Generally, since the year 1947, Italian ministers haven’t done anything remarkable in favor of common citizens, even if, honestly, the depreciable fact hasn’t been exclusively a fault of them. In effect, the constitution of Italy, still in vigor, is made for political parties and career bureaucracies, that are regulated as practically omnipotent, and not subject to any popular control. The horrible statute, typical of the worst dictatorships and oligarchic regimes, has been masked behind heavy doses of hypocrisy, under the form of solemn principles, fatally destined to total absence of practical applications. I’ve described the political situation of Italy with brutal clarity, like no Italian official mass media has ever made, because, although perfectly known to Italian citizens, it is largely unknown to my non-Italian readers. I need that because the page is dedicated to an important Italian politician, dead in the year 2019, who didn’t deserve a particular blame, even if he was ferociously criticized by the Italian press. For instance, a legend of Italian journalism, Mr. Enzo Biagi (R.I.P.), defined the protagonist of the page with the linguistic expression “avanzo di balera”. I’m convinced that the cited expression can’t be properly translated into English, because it is based on a brilliant double sense, that doesn’t belong to Anglo-Saxon popular culture. The literal translation, more or less, would be “man wickedly immune from prison and dancing at discos”, and I find it not funny. After some efforts, and thanks to the precious help of the internet, I can propose some phrases in English, that, in my opinion, maintain some of the meanings of the sophisticated insult “avanzo di balera”. My proposals are the following: highbinder high on the boogie; felon on the loose lent to discos; hustler who dances to the hustle; political buddy wallowing in the swamp while dancing; dirty political dancer; two shady hands in the cookie jar, even grabbing disco cookies; and so on.
As explained above, the page is dedicated to a deceased Italian politician, and not to his political activity, which is largely irrelevant and not worth to be remembered, although without any special, personal guilt. More precisely, he was an average son-of-a-gun, similarly to the vast majority of his colleagues. Thus, nothing about the political biography, except for a brief, final comment, in the matter of the peculiar intelligence of the man. The name of the politician, three times minister and one time vice-premier, was Gianni De Michelis. Well, during the 80’s, the years of his participations to the government of the country, Mr. De Michelis became a passionate frequenter of discos, at first in Rome, and successively in other Italian towns. His love for disco music was so big that he, highly improperly for a minister, wrote a book, containing a detailed guide to 250 Italian discotheques. Alas, in the 80’s, dancing venues in Italy were about 7000, and now are about 1000. The crisis of the sector can’t be stopped, and the declining trend is continually accelerating. For that, almost all of the discotheques, accurately described by Mr. De Michelis, are now definitively closed.
The first conclusion is that Mr. Gianni De Michelis improperly made something indirectly useful to the economy of the country, while, since the 80’s, the most appreciated ministers of Italy have often damaged the economy itself. The second conclusion is an answer to the question whether Mr. De Michelis was a saint or not. No, he wasn’t, he was a shrewd criminal, able to understand that in Italy political crimes are totally unpunished, when the profit of the crime goes partly in favor of the former communist party (now named “democrat party”). For example, they say that, in occasion of the corporate restructuring of a big enterprise owned by the state administration, he secretly doubled the severance pay of early retired workers, naturally communist activists, in change of a certain percentage of the hidden amount. No criminal trial was started, because the acquisition of evidences resulted impossible.
Now you know something about the pioneer of ministers addicted to disco dance. Coming to music, I recorded a mix of dancing tracks of the year 1988, suitable to the disco nights of the vice-premier Mr. De Michelis at Roman discos.
File name “1988, the jet set at Roman discos, by Max Look DJ (Apr 2025)”, about 1 hour and 22’ of the peculiar tunes of the second half of the 80’s, when house music was fresh and not already prevalent.
Late 80’s, the playlist:
(1988) Jungle Brothers – straight out the jungle
(1988) Bobby Brown – every little step
(1988) Milli Vanilli – girl you know it’s true
(1988) Toto – stop loving you
(1988) U 2 – angel of Harlem
(1988) Chris De Burgh – sailing away
(1988) Depeche Mode – little 15
(1988) Evelyn “Champagne” King – hold on to what you’ve got
(1988) Myleka Thompson – confess
(1988) Jellybean feat Richard Darbyshire – coming back for more (part 1)
(1988) Jesse Johnson – love struck (LP version)
(1988) Beach Boys – Kokomo
(1988) Scram – running away
(1988) Blow Monkeys feat Sylvia Tella – choice?
(1988) Narada Michael Walden – divine emotions
(1988) Herbie Hancock – vibe alive
(1988) Mango – oasi
(1988) Saxon – ride like the wind
(1988) Cameo – you make me work
(1988) Blow Monkeys – this is your house 12”
(1988) Will Downing – a love supreme
